


Of Birds & Balloons

by Anonymous_Ostrich



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nagisa is an angel and Rei is a rich kid, angel au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 03:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3674946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous_Ostrich/pseuds/Anonymous_Ostrich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If magic is an unstoppable force, then logic is an unmovable object. Neither of them matter in the slightest when love is involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Birds & Balloons

**Author's Note:**

> Had to re-submit this for some reason because A03 wasn't displaying the tags correctly? Sorry if you'd bookmarked it already!

It wasn't exactly as though Rei were running away from home. He was just going out for a bit. Stretching his legs. The fact that he wasn't telling anyone he was leaving was the only bother on his mind, the only factor that made him slightly nervous. He wanted to avoid annoying follow-up questions. More than anything, though, he wanted to get away, if only for a little while.

It wasn't exactly oppressive at home. He had every luxury befitting the son of a politician, and he really might have been more grateful for his privilege if he'd ever known any other sort of life, which he hadn't. Rei really didn't think of things in those terms. He was much more preoccupied strengthening his mind through learning and his body through exercise, two things that took up much of his time. He was given plenty of privacy at home and rarely felt he was denied any freedom, but nevertheless from time to time the manor would begin to feel distinctly like a fancy, domed bird cage. This was one of those nights.

After finishing his homework and doing a little extra reading (just because he needed a breath of fresh air didn't make him a slacker,) Rei pulled on his jacket and stealthily made his way down the main floor staircase to the entrance room. Given how late it was, the lights were dimmed and there was not a maid in sight. Taking the opportunity, Rei carefully crossed the room and opened the front door as quietly as he could manage. When he was sure nothing had stirred, he slipped out and shut the door behind him.

Pulling his jacket more tightly around himself, Rei began the long walk away from his house. The Ryugazaki Manor was a massive western-style mansion with a generous amount of land surrounding it on all sides, fountains in front and flower beds littered just about everywhere you looked. The path leading up the house was a trek in of itself, quicker to traverse by car; Rei chose to jog tonight, hoping his father didn't decide to come home right when he was making his getaway. Not that he was partaking in any sort of getaway behavior. He just wanted to stretch his legs. Breath of fresh air.

As Rei slipped out the front gates and started off toward the city, he knew exactly where he was heading. He had been thinking about his mother when he'd started to feel so discorded. Every year around the anniversary of her death he would have the urge to get away from the manor and visit their favorite spot. He wasn't sure why. He wasn't a terribly sentimental person, nor did he dabble in being nostalgic. Still, he felt compelled to do it. He just wished the night wasn't so chilly.

The streets were bare aside from a few stragglers looking to get home before the promised snowfall. Rei thought he could see the first snowflakes of the night trying to reach the ground, but everytime he thought he noticed one, it would fizzle away to nothing. Perhaps it was because Rei was focused on the sky and the snowflakes that he was looking up toward the roof of the local high school. Perhaps it was this reason that he was able to see something unusual silhouetted against the dark, snowy sky.

Rei's footsteps came to an abrupt halt. Something like a figure, a _human_ figure, possibly more than one - no, just one, _maybe_ \- appeared to be standing up on the ledge of the high school's roof. Rei stood there, looking up at the school with a calm expression that boldly contrasted the conflicting feelings lurching inside of him. Briefly, Rei looked around. He was hoping there would be someone close by, someone he could ask for a quick analysis of the situation just so he might save himself from embarrassment in the event that there was nothing wrong after all… He saw no one. He glanced back up at the roof. The figure (or figures, it was impossible to tell and there appeared to be two smaller forms on either side of the first) was still stationed exactly where they'd been when Rei had first spotted them. Rei felt a cold stab of fear. What should he do? Call the police? Could they even arrive in time to prevent this kind of tragedy? And for that matter, what if this person decided not to do it? What if they weren't planning on doing anything at all and Rei got everyone all worked up for nothing?

Before he could ask anymore needless questions, Rei was running to the front doors of the school. He had no plan aside from seeing if he could get in, which he very much doubted he could, but it was all he could think to do. He was there, and no one else was. Did that make this sort of thing his responsibility?

To Rei's surprise and possibly his disappointment, the front doors were unlocked. He let himself in, cursing under his breath. He had been hoping there would be no way inside, so that he would be forced to choose the only other option - calling the police to let _them_ deal with it - but the damn doors were unlocked, and he was already running up the stairs, two at a time, wondering grimly if the stranger had already jumped.

What would he say when he got up there? He hadn't even thought that much through yet. He wasn't even sure how he should arrive - busting the door open with a loud, encouraging message or sneaking his way up and trying to soften the blow by carefully alerting them to his presence. He supposed there was no time to think about it now. He had already grabbed the handle and pushed the door open, expecting the worst.

The word he was searching for was 'inconceivable'. He wasn't sure that quite did the situation justice, but it was the only fitting description that sprang to mind amidst the shock.

It seemed like an unusual time to recall such a seemingly pointless memory from his childhood, but Rei was reminded of the red balloon his mother bought him long ago at a festival. She'd told him to hang tightly to it so that it wouldn't fly away, but in a moment of carelessness, Rei accidentally loosened his grip on the string. The image of the glossy red globe escaping into the endless sky, getting smaller and smaller was forever burned into Rei's mind. He felt guilty for letting go, but so, _so_ envious of the brief freedom the balloon was rewarded with as it vanished into the vivid blue.

Ryugazaki Rei stood just inside the door of the school roof, his eyes wide and staring at a young man with fluffy blonde hair and a pale complexion. He wore no clothing despite the significant chill of the night, and his attention was elsewhere, gazing down from the school rooftop to the streets below with an expression Rei could only guess at. The most alarming thing about the boy wasn't the lack of clothing. It was the large, gently swaying wings that protruded from his back just under his shoulder blades. Ivory in color and made up of long, broad feathers, the wings looked exactly like traditional angel wings Rei had seen countless times in renaissance art, so much so that he wanted to believe they were fake - nothing more than extremely well-crafted props. He knew they couldn't be. Literally everything about the boy seemed inhuman. Ethereal. Just like the balloon, the image of him standing there seemed burned into his memory. Like it was shaking something free.

The boy finally seemed to take notice that someone else was on the rooftop with him. He turned his head, eyes wide in surprise and perhaps a dash of fear; Rei felt a jolt of something indescribably powerful when their eyes met, and before he could properly react (something in the form of _running far away_ , probably,) the blonde's mouth opened, his expression unmistakably astonished.

"C - can you see me?"

The question was so bizarre that Rei momentarily forgot both his rescue, his escape plan and the fact that he was about to engage in conversation with a winged, naked boy.

"Ah - Well... yes, I can," Rei answered, unmoving from his firm position in the doorway. The boy almost looked like he could cry.

" _Really_?" he asked, beginning to smile.

"R - really," Rei replied uncertainly.

Before he could register what was happening, the winged boy was rushing across the roof to him, running straight into his arms. Both the force of it and the shock knocked Rei cleanly off his feet and the both of them tumbled to the ground. The blonde pressed his face into Rei's chest and wrapped his slim arms around his waist, smothering him with feathers and joyous crying.

"It _worked_! Rei-chan, I'm so happy! _I'm so happy_!"

"Ah - _Hey_ \- What are you - Hey!"

His head spinning in confusion, Rei grabbed the boy's shoulders and wrenched him off, finally able to get a good look at his face. The boy's large magenta eyes were glistening with tears and his cheeks were tinted pink, from either the cold of the night or his crying fit Rei wasn't sure; his mouth was pink and full, currently pulled into a charming smile. He was almost too pretty to be male, Rei thought, but was suddenly and embarrassingly reminded of the blonde's boyhood as he realized he was practically being straddled.

In a fit of panic and possibly humiliation, Rei shoved the winged boy off of him, putting a modest distance between them. He wished he could stand, but he worried his legs would tremble.

"Who are you? _What_ are you? And… My name, how do you know my name?"

The boy didn't seem terribly troubled by Rei's reaction. He tilted his head with an inquisitive expression. "You don't remember, Rei-chan?"

" _Rei-chan_?" Rei repeated distastefully, his attention grabbed by the languid movements of the large, feathered wings. "I don't know what you're talking about! I only came up here because I saw someone standing on the ledge and I thought… Well, I thought that someone might have been getting ready to…" Rei cleared his throat sheepishly.

The boy looked down, as if he were considering something very serious. He smiled sadly. "I was worried you wouldn't remember. That's okay, though. I knew that might happen." He glanced back up at Rei, his cheeks still rosy. "Anyway, I'm Nagisa! As for what I _am_ , on Earth I'm what you would call an angel!"

Rei was rendered speechless. On the one hand, it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard said out loud. On the other hand, the boy was naked and had large, indisputably angelic wings. It was hard to argue.

"An… angel? As in, from Heaven?" Rei asked quietly.

"Sort of," Nagisa said, placing a finger to his chin. "I guess that'd be the easiest way to describe it. It's a different plane of reality that kind of folds over yours, if that helps."

"Ah," Rei looked away, the boy's unashamed nakedness beginning to wear Rei thin now that the initial shock was melting into lucidity. "If that's so… Why are you here? Why can I see you?"

"I came here to be with Rei-chan!" Nagisa chimed happily. Despite his embarrassment, Rei glanced at Nagisa in surprise. He was here for _him_? What did that even mean?

"Am I going to… _Die_ , or something?" Rei asked uncertainly. Nagisa giggled and shook his head.

"No, I came here to be _with_ you! I worked really hard to get a physical body so that you could see me, and _look_ , I can even _touch_ you!" The angel crawled forward and extended a hand to Rei's face; Rei pulled away, hesitancy tearing through him. Nagisa's smile disappeared - he lowered his hand. "Ahh… Sorry, Rei-chan…"

Rei struggled to his feet, swaying somewhat but catching himself. "I still don't understand… None of this makes any sense. Angels don't exist, and you still haven't explained how you know my name or why you're calling me 'Rei-chan'!"

Nagisa stood up as well, feathers brushing over his neck and shoulders. "There are certain things I can't tell you. I still have to follow some rules, or else I won't get to stay here."

"What _can_ you tell me?" Rei asked.

Nagisa worried his bottom lip for a moment, deep in thought. Finally, he looked up at Rei with pleading eyes. "I can tell you that I really, _really_ love you, Rei-chan," he said, with such sincerity that Rei couldn't possibly doubt the validity of his words. Rei felt himself redden despite his confusion. "I can tell you that I'm here to be with you, and even if you can't remember me, I'd still like to be near you, if you'll let me."

He always imagined that the first person to confess to him would be a girl. Never in Rei's wildest dreams did he think he would hear his first love confession from a nude angel boy on the rooftop of a school he didn't even attend.

Rei glanced away, head spinning, shouldering off his jacket with a sigh. "I don't understand anything that's going on, but I know you shouldn't be n- _naked_ in such weather, or out in public." Without looking at him, Rei extended his jacket to Nagisa. The boy looked down at himself in consideration before gently taking the jacket in his hands.

"What should I do with this?" he asked.

"You put it on!" Rei answered, shocked that he would even have to explain something so obvious.

"Oh," Nagisa answered, standing stock still. Against his better judgement, Rei glanced at him to see Nagisa with the jacket in his hands, staring at it as though it had just said something extremely troubling.

"...Do you know how to put a jacket on?" Rei asked.

"Ah, it's not that, really..." Nagisa said with a chuckle, and flexed his wings as an explanation. "I… I don't know how to put these away yet." he admitted.

"I see," Rei replied, unsure how to deal with such a ludicrous problem. "I suppose… You could try putting it on backwards, buttoning it in the back."

Nagisa made a musical noise of excitement. "That's a really good idea!" he chimed, carefully sliding his arms through the sleeves, the collar bunching up under his chin. The jacket hung down just above his knees, successfully covering him so that Rei could look without feeling awkward. Nagisa tried several times to reach behind him to fasten the buttons before finally giving up.

"I can't reach the buttons," he remarked. "Rei-chan, could you get them for me?"

Adjusting his glasses, Rei cleared his throat. He wanted to say 'no', not only because he was still unsure about this strange boy, but largely because the idea of going near those wings was a bit intimidating. Rather quickly, Rei reminded himself that he had suggested the jacket in the first place, and therefore the responsibility fell to him to help Nagisa put it on properly.

"Ah… Yes,"

Nagisa smiled and turned around; carefully, Rei approached.

"You can keep those things… _still_ , can't you? So that they don't… touch me?" Rei asked worriedly.

"Sure!" the angel chirped, and his wings went obediently rigid.

Still moving as if he were approaching a wild animal, Rei slid uncomfortably between Nagisa's large wings and began to fasten the buttons, careful to leave three buttons undone at the top so that Nagisa's wings could remain unobstructed. As he worked, he couldn't help but stare at the spot where the feathers thinned and smoothed out just under his shoulder blades, where the base of the wing seamlessly joined with skin. They were real, living wings. Seeing it up close cemented this outlandish fact. Rei hardly noticed that he had long since fastened all of the buttons; he was mesmerized.

"Do you want to touch them?" Nagisa asked, turning his head to regard Rei with a smile. "They're really soft!"

"Ahh… No, I-"

"It's really okay, Rei-chan! They're just like bird wings, only bigger!"

Logic and curiosity debated strongly in Rei's mind before he finally gave in to curiosity. What could it hurt? He was always fascinated by new species and undiscovered wonders of the world, was this really any different?

"You really wouldn't mind?" Rei asked awkwardly.

"Not at all!" Nagisa answered. His wings wiggled invitingly.

Raising a shaky hand, Rei's fingers extended to touch the broad primary feathers. They really did feel exactly like bird feathers, soft to the touch and incredibly delicate. Nagisa's wing twitched unexpectedly and Rei retracted his hand.

"D - did I do something wrong?"

Nagisa giggled. "Sorry, Rei-chan. It sort of tickled." He laughed again and shook his head. "I'm ready for it now, you can keep going."

Rei's ears burned in mild humiliation as he continued to stroke Nagisa's wing, more gently than before. They really were incredible. As he became more confident, Rei slid his fingers along one of the larger primaries, noticing details in the feather he hadn't before. All of a sudden, he felt relaxed. He was inspecting the wing of an real, living angel. At the beginning of the day, Rei had never imagined he would be witnessing something so impossible. He realized that later, he'd most likely have to rearrange everything he knew about the world and its principals; for now, however, he was more concerned about securing Nagisa some proper clothes.

"So… Ah, Nagisa-san, you really can't tell me how you know me?"

"Nope. Sorry, Rei-chan."

"Can you give me any hints?"

Nagisa's fluffy blonde head tilted upward, seemingly in thought. "I'm not sure… I don't know if there are any rules about that."

"Rules?" Rei asked curiously, more preoccupied with Nagisa's wing then he thought he'd be. "What kind of rules? Who makes them? Why do they exist?"

"So many questions!" Nagisa chirped with a laugh.

"Sorry," Rei answered.

"Don't apologize, you can ask any question you want!" Nagisa's wings fluttered gently. "There are lots of rules about what we can and can't do here on Earth. If we didn't have rules, it would be chaotic! Angels would be showing themselves to humans all the time."

"Why don't they?" Rei asked. "If they did, there would be no question as to whether angels and otherworldly beings exist. Wouldn't that be easier?"

"Humans are delicate, and they all have very different ways of thinking." Nagisa explained. "If we showed ourselves, it wouldn't change anything. Humans would still fight over their religions, wage wars, and they would probably try and hurt us or capture us."

"Ah… I didn't think of that," Rei admitted. "Does this mean that most religions are wrong, then?"

Nagisa produced a rather convincing buzzer sound. "Can't answer! I _can_ tell you that this question falls into the 'free will' category, though, and humans have been believing in deities and religions of their own creation for so long that there's really no right or wrong answer. If a person believes in something hard enough, it becomes real to that person."

"I see," Rei gave one of Nagisa's feathers a gentle stroke and carefully stepped out from between his wings. "That's a strange way of looking at reality."

"What do you believe, Rei-chan?" Nagisa asked, folding his wings against his back.

Rei adjusted his glasses. "I believe in logic and theory. I've never been the religious type."

Nagisa giggled. "That's just like Rei-chan." He held out his arms, observing how large Rei's jacket was on him. "Your jacket is really warm!"

"Anything would be warm in comparison to wearing nothing." Rei pointed out. He glanced around, remembering how long they'd been talking on the roof. Before he'd come up, had anyone else seen Nagisa on the roof? They more than likely hadn't, or they might have come to the same conclusions he had… Still, he was concerned. "We should go. We shouldn't be up here this late to begin with. And if anyone else were to see _you_ like this, I'm not sure how you could explain yourself."

Considering the matter finished, Rei turned to descend the stairs and stopped only when he realized he was not being followed. He turned, half-expecting Nagisa to have disappeared into thin air and for all of this to have been imagined; However, Nagisa was still there, unmoving at the top of the stairs, wringing his hands through his long sleeves.

"The thing is," Nagisa said carefully with a timid smile, "I was sort of planning to stay up here all night."

"As chilly as it is? And in plain sight?" Rei asked, aghast. "What about when school starts in the morning? What about when students use the roof throughout the day?"

Nagisa's fidgeting continued. "Well…"

Rei sighed. "Nagisa-san, you mentioned something about getting a physical body? When exactly did that happen?"

Nagisa smiled brightly. "Shortly before you found me!"

"So it stands to reason you don't have anywhere to live, is that right?"

Nagisa awkwardly scratched the back of his head, his wings twitching. "Right…"

"What were you planning on doing, exactly?"

"I was going to find you!" Nagisa announced confidently. "I was using the roof as a vantage point!"

Rei sighed again, covering his face with his hand. "Somehow, I don't think you planned all of this out nearly as well as you think you did." He peeked through his fingers. "Where were you planning on living, while you were here on Earth? You know you can't live with me, right?"

"I know that!" Nagisa replied, his lovely mouth forming a pout. "I was going to figure something out..."

'Figure something out'... What options did a boy with wings really have? Unless he could magically conjure up currency and rent an apartment from someone who has no problem renting a room to a naked boy with wings, Rei wasn't sure Nagisa's situation wasn't something so easily sorted out. Still, why was he even troubling himself with any of this? Just because Nagisa seemed to know him didn't make him Rei's responsibility.

Even so, he knew there was no way he could leave him be. He couldn't explain it, but he felt compelled to help. Leaving Nagisa alone seemed wrong. What if he was seen by someone? Would he end up on the news? Would he become a celebrity, or an experiment?

"There's a place you might be able to stay…" The words had left his mouth before he'd had a chance to really think it over. Nagisa's eyes went wide and practically sparkled with intrigue. "Just for a little while, until you can find a new place!" he amended quickly.

"Really?! Where, Rei-chan?"

Feeling distinctly as though he had just inadvertently been given the role of 'leader', Rei adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. "First things first, let's leave before someone notices we're up here. I can't imagine your wings or choice of clothing will be easy to explain."

In the very back of Rei's mind, there was a strange thrill in meeting Nagisa. It still felt as though something was shaking free, something wistful and exhilarating, something like the red balloon disappearing into the warm summer sky.

**Author's Note:**

> One of these days I will write a multi-chapter Free! fanfic that won't be an AU. One of these days. I swear. *stares off into the horizon* ~~Also I really have to cut this shit out I'm working on like 3 other multi-chapter fics right now this is too much~~
> 
> I did some sketches of this chapter while I was writing the first chapter, I posted them on Tumblr (with an excerpt from this chapter) but I'm too lazy to link it so just know there's a post out there somewhere making it's rounds ORZ


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